Work

Data approaches for lifecourse research on early-life determinants of late-life health outcomes: opportunities, limitations, and tradeoffs

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Identifying determinants of late-life disease and pathology, ascertaining when they exert their greatest impact (e.g., childhood, adolescence, midlife), and understanding how these factors accumulate and interact over time to shape disease development are central goals of lifecourse research. However, data availability, especially for early-life risk factors, is often an obstacle to the identification of lifecourse determinants of late-life health outcomes and impedes understanding of how they influence risk over time. To guide researchers in designing studies of the effects of early-life exposures on late-life health, here we review key data sources and approaches for obtaining early-life exposure information. We first consider birth cohort studies-in which exposures and outcomes may be prospectively observed in the same participants across the lifecourse-and then review alternative approaches for recovering or integrating early-life information when it is not directly available within a study, including data linkages, retrospective data collection, and synthetic cohorts. We discuss the benefits and disadvantages of each approach, emphasizing their tradeoffs and the importance of matching the research question to the selected data. To aid in researcher decision-making, we also discuss the types of research questions each approach is best suited to address, present examples of successful implementation, and provide a decision flowchart with critical questions to guide selection of the optimal approach for obtaining early-life data for one's study. Careful attention to these tradeoffs and considerations when undertaking lifecourse research will help advance understanding of how exposures over the lifecourse broadly shape late-life health.

Source: SSM - Population Health

DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2026.101985